Can Google Gemini help with. Illustrator?

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Can Google Gemini help with solving Illustrator questions?

I have test drived Google Gemini, an A.I. that is (among other things) meant to assist you while working in an application. You can use it via chat or you can talk to it and you can share your screen, which I have done in this video https://youtu.be/F4mabCJ8Xww

But my first test run was this chat. I'm going to put the full quote on this page and comment it. The interesting thing about it is that in the several sessions that I had with Gemini, I've been presented with several different methods for creating this stamp that I wanted.

Hello, could you perhaps help me create a border that looks like a postal stamp in Adobe Illustrator?

Yes, I can help with that, to create a postal stamp Border in Adobe Illustrator you can use the dashed line feature with rounded corners. Would you like me to guide you through the steps?

Yes, please do

Okay, let's get started first. You'll need to create a rectangle using the rectangle tool and this will be the base shape for your stamp. Do you know how to do that?

I think I can figure that out

After creating the rectangle, you want to go to the stroke panel. Do you know where to find that?

Can you please tell me?

Certainly, the stroke panel is usually located on the right side of your screen. Grouped with other panels like color and layers. It might also be under window in the top menu. Then select stroke. Did you find it?

yes, thank you.

You're welcome. Now, in the stroke panel, you'll see an option. For dashed line, click that check box. Are you with me so far?

Yes, works great

Excellent. Now, you can adjust the dash and GAP values to get the look. You want typically a small – and a small Gap work? Well, what values are you using?

1 and 1 - is that correct?

1 and 1 is not correct. The dash needs to always be 0 for the dash to become a circle.

Yes, one and one can work well, for a small stamp after that, you may want to adjust the cap and Corner options to round it, to make the dashes look more like stamp perforations. Have you found those options?

Yes, those buttons

Perfect, click on the rounded options for both cap and Corner. This will make the dashes appear as little circles. Are you happy with the result?

Kind of, but can that look better?

Yes, it's possible to refine it further. You could try adjusting the weight of the stroke to make the perforations more or less prominent, or you could try different – and GAP values. For example, changing it from one and one to two, and two or one and two. Would you like to experiment with that?

I think so. But there is another thing. I now have black circles, but how do I punch them out?

Ah, I understand you want the dashed line to be punched out so the stamp border is not solid. To do that we'll need to use the offset path feature. Are you familiar with that?

Heard of it

Offset path will not give you the desired result. It's unnecesary. And I'm not sure where Gemini is taking that from. Certainly not from the usual stamp tutorials.

Okay. Great. First. Make sure your stamp rectangle is selected then go to object in the top menu then path and then select offset path. Have you found it?

Yes, thank you!

Welcome. In the offset path dialog box enter a negative value for the offset. This will create a smaller path inside the original rectangle. Do you see the new path?

Yes.

Now select both the original rectangle and the offset path. Then use the minus front option in the Pathfinder panel. This will subtract the smaller rectangle from the original creating a hollow shape with the dashed line border if you tried that.

Tht will not work as expected. You would first of all need to expand the stroke before subtracting, but then it would just punch out circles from the rectangle.

Yes, works perfectly. But now I noticed that my stamp need to be a little wider. Do I need to draw it from scratch or is there perhaps a feature that does it dynamically?

You're in luck. You don't need to start from scratch. You can adjust the size of the rectangle and the dashed line and offset path will update dynamically. Have you tried scaling the rectangle?

Yes, but then the border gets distorted. It's been subtracted with the Pathfinder already.

You are absolutely right. My apologies I got ahead of myself.

Let's undo the subtraction we did earlier. Do you know how to do that?

ctrl+Z

Exactly. Now, that you've undone the subtraction, you should have the original rectangle with the dashed line and the smaller offset path on top. Is that correct?

yes.

Okay? Now you can adjust the size of the original rectangle and the dashed line will scale with it. The offset path will need to be recalculated after resizing, would you like me to guide you through that?

No, thank you, You've already taught me that. But isn't there a method in which I can already see the border while sizing the rectangle?

Yes, there is a way to do that instead of using the offset path and subtracting it, you can use an appearance panel to create a second stroke with a negative offset. Would you like to try that?

Yes!

Okay, first, make sure you have the original rectangle selected with the dashed stroke then go to the appearance panel, it's usually grouped with other panels on the right or you can find it under the window menu. Have you found it?

Yes

Great. In the appearance panel, click on the add new stroke button at the bottom. This will add another stroke on top of the dashed one. Do you see the new stroke?

As well as you don't need offset path you also don't need a second stroke.

yes

Now with the new stroke selected in the appearance panel, click on the FX button at the bottom to add new effect. Then go to path and select offset path. Are you with me?

yes

In the offset path dialog box and enter a negative value to move the stroke inside the rectangle. Then click. Okay, you should now see a second – line inside the original one. Can you see that?

yes

Now change the color of the new stroke to white or the same color as your background. So it punches out the original – stroke. Is it working correctly? You should see the stamp border effect with a transparent Center.

yes.

Perfect. Now, you can resize, the rectangle, and the stamp border will update, dynamically keeping the same proportions and the punched Outlook. Does that work as expected.

yes. unless I put it on a patterned backgound

You're right, the white stroke will not work well on a pattern background in that case. Instead of a white stroke you can add a fill to your rectangle. This fill will then cover the background and the punched out border will appear correctly. Would you like to try that?

yes

At this point the chat was terminated.

The method to achieve what I wanted would have been a knockout group. But the knowledge about knockout groups is not widely spread.

So will this tech revolutionize software training or support? My conclusion is based on this chat as well as my screensharing session with the tech.

It certainly has the potential to disrupt the industry. It's of course attractive for users to talk to an anonymous chatbot without having to risk making a fool of yourself with a question that others conceive as silly and without having to ask follow up questions because the answer reveals just how over the top your question was in proportion to your exiting knowledge. Instead you can just learn your way through it with the help of a bot.

But in here also lies one of the several general issues with the approach.

Sessions: your time with the bot is limited and the bot does not carry over the conversation you just had into the next conversation. Instead you get the impression tht you are talking to different personlites using different approaches to the problem in each session. This will not lead to an effective learning process. Quite the contrary.

Different approaches: You would think that there is one solution to a problem. But there isn't. Often there are several and depending on the factory involved you need to carefully choose the approach. Which also leads to the fact that there are several different approaches in tutorials on a given subject. You might have expeirenced that yourself when searching for something. You remember a tutorial, but cannot find it again.

You might think that when talking to Gemini, it will research a tutorial and then read it out to you while comparing your screen to the result in the tutorial. But I don't think that's how it works. It introduces steps into workflows that should be there (the offset path in this example). The steps might be in related tutorials, but not in stamps. So somehow this is a Generative A.I. that hallucinates its own teaching.

Certainty that you're on the correct path: When you find a tutorial, itusually has a picture of the endresult, so before even starting you can see whether this is what you want. Gemini will all the time reassure you that it's going to be OK, while leading you off the path. And at the end of the session you didn't get any closer to your goal. But you only realize after the fact and didn't even learn anything.

Experience in the analog world: A lot of aspects around publishing software use are based on how things work in the analog world and certainly you get to a result faster when you have experienced them, not only read about them.

Soving issues that stem from mistakes: When you apply something in the wrong way and then want to do certain other things, it will fail (such as the brush in my video at 13:10). Although Gemini told me to apply that, it probably does not know that this brush collides with the dashes or (even worse) it forgot that there is a brush. Human educators know about these things and can solve them instantly and of course we have to expect beginners to make mistakes.

So while this tech appears beginner-friendly, it is actually not. It might help you with simple questions such as where to locate a certain tool, but with more complex questions couldjust lead to frustration.

If you enjoyed this article, you might be interested in my other English tutorials:

How to set up a file: vector/raster, color mode, resolution, file format
Mysterious things Illustrator does - Saving files (Video on Vimeo)
EPS – the zombie of file formats
Saving safely
Saving legacy files
Long Shadows with Illustrator
Problems with align to pixel grid
Proposals for better better workflow in Illustrator
3D-Animation
Freeform-artbrush with a gradient
Pathfinder doesn‘t react
Stylish guilloches with gradients
Outline object and outline stroke